Stoned and Dethroned: Classic Alternative

For a band known for its feedback-heavy distortion-laden alternative rock songs, to release an acoustic album as a follow up to its breakthrough, Automatic, seems like a foolish maneuver. Indeed, when it debuted at the peak of the alternative era (1994), Stoned and Dethroned clashes with everything else out there. This was a time of Weezer's Blue Album, of Green Day's Dookie, of the explosion of the radio-friendly but edgy and smart band.

The Jesus and Mary Chain were poised to take a big chunk of that, but it wasn't meant to be. No one wanted to hear acoustic melodies, heck not even fast-paced songs, on college radio back then. Stoned and Dethroned single handedly drove a wedge between even the most hard-core J&MC fans of the day, and baffled critics and music executives alike be its timing.

I bought the album when it came out, but I never really got into it, mostly because it just never mixed with what you expect from J&MC. Still, I honestly never really gave it a good listen, so it stuck around in my CD collection all these years, waiting for me to rediscover it.

Stoned and Dethroned continues to surprise me. Not just because most of the 18 acoustic tracks are short, tight, and infectious, but that I didn't have the time or appreciation to recognize a great album when it came out 13 years ago. I suppose tastes change, and maybe I was too young to see it for its mellow, pleasing, somehow upbeat tunes. I highly recommend you don't wait a decade before adding it to your collection.

Or I can just burn it for you :).